Mr. Freddeoso's book, mentioned in conservative Thomas Sowell's
article, is NOT a place to look for facts. Please read the following
by Joseph A. Palermo:
Freddoso cites as "evidence" emails he received from random people
when they heard he was writing a book on Obama, and arbitrary posts
from the comments section of the Obama campaign's web site. He quotes
a "letter to the editor" from an obscure newspaper, and he cites Fox's
Hannity and Colmes and The O'Reilly Factor as well as Chris Matthews.
He cites a blogger from Jamaica, the charlatan Jonah Goldberg, the
Harvard Crimson, and writers from the National Review, which give the
book an "echo chamber" quality. There are numerous factual errors in
the book that Media Matters.org has already documented.
Throughout the book, Freddoso repeats a Republican talking point that
we've heard from David Brooks and others: "Obama presents not ideas
but feelings. He is the candidate of emotivism. Obamian passion is
based on the persona that his followers have created for Obama in
their own minds. Many don't know who the man really is." (pp. 66-67)
His account is full of apocryphal stories; grotesque generalizations;
geeky attempts at "humor"; anecdotal evidence; rumors and innuendo;
cutesy plays on words; and the thickheaded reliance on the myth of the
"liberal media."
But the major flaw in the book is that there is no historical context.
Freddoso makes no attempt to explain to readers how American politics
produced the Obama phenomenon in the first place. By decontextualizing
Obama's popularity, Freddoso is free to argue that Obama's appeal is
solely the result of "celebrity" and other intangible qualities, which
mirrors John McCain's recent Paris Hilton attack ad. For Freddoso, the
last eight years (and the 12 years of Republican control of Congress)
didn't even happen. He misses the groundswell of opposition the Bush-
Cheney-Rove era has produced. He willfully ignores that one of the
reasons why Obama is so popular stems from the fact that President
Bush and the Republicans are so UNpopular, and that Americans are
longing for new leadership. Obama emerged on the scene from the
wreckage of the Bush Administration to offer the nation hope. Freddoso
keeps it a mystery why people are excited about the change in
direction Obama promises. Most people think having a president who can
speak English and not embarrass himself or lie every time he opens his
mouth would be a positive new development. Not Freddoso and his ilk.
(At least Freddoso is willing to admit "even Republicans are hesitant
to defend" Bush at this point (p. 55), and "President Bush has proven
a big disappointment.") (p. 74)
Another impression I got from the book is that Freddoso does not
understand that Obama, as an African American, might see the world in
slightly different terms than he does. I think his contacts with black
people must be limited to like-minded colloquies with Kenneth
Blackwell-type conservatives and other ideological soul mates. He
seems "shocked" to hear African-American voices expressing displeasure
with certain aspects of the American dream. He needs to read more
Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and less
Shelby Steele, Clarence Thomas, and Ward Connerly.
Freddoso tries hard to make the case via guilt by association that
Obama is a corrupt politician. He rehashes the Antoin Rezko stuff
taking most of his material from Chicago newspapers. After pages and
pages of innuendo that Obama conspired with Rezko in some fashion, he
never explains why the Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney in the region
didn't indict him or even ask him to testify at Rezko's trial if the
two men were such close associates. Political indictments were a dime
a dozen in Bush's Justice Department -- just ask former Alabama
Governor Don Siegelman or his nemesis Karl Rove. Freddoso juxtaposes
unsubstantiated charges to give the impression of a vast criminal
conspiracy reminiscent of the Right's hyperventilating during the
Clinton years about the "Whitewater" land deal. But "where's the
beef?" Freddoso also trudges through worn-out Reverend Wright material
again hitting all the sour notes, and he dedicates almost an entire
chapter to the former Weatherman, Bill Ayres. It's all old "news."
In one laughable section at the end of the book entitled, "Obama:
Timeline of a (Brief) Political Life," Freddoso compiles relevant
names, dates, and events:
"Aug. 4, 1961 -- Obama born in Hawaii.
Feb. 16, 1970 -- Weatherman terrorist bombing in San Francisco kills
one.
Mar. 6, 1970 -- Unsuccessful Weatherman bombing in Detroit.
Jun. 12, 1972 -- Saul Alinsky dies.
Oct. 18, 1974 -- Larry Grothwahl testifies before a Senate
subcommittee on William Ayres's involvement in bomb plots. . . . " (p.
237)
Even though Obama was 9 years old in 1970 it seems he still cannot
escape guilt by association with a short-lived and ill-fated radical
group from the 1960s.
According to Freddoso, everything Obama did while serving in the
Illinois State Senate, no matter how routine -- passing legislation
that benefited his constituents, wheeling and dealing with other
Senators and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to get grants and other
appropriations passed, putting together private-public partnerships to
rejuvenate blighted neighborhoods -- are all part of a grand
conspiracy with sinister motives and a hidden corrupt agenda. This
kind of thing could have been written about any politician in America
(especially Republican politicians). He criminalizes the quotidian
operations of legislators and relentlessly pounds Obama from the Right
AND from the Left. He purposely doesn't try to contextualize anything.
Only someone from the Right could get away with this kind of tripe,
and get a lot of money and TV appearances in the process. Great for
Fredo. Not so great for American political discourse.
For Freddoso, Obama embodies "the hard-core radicalism of the 1960s
era and Chicago's Machine politics," (p. xi) and "[h]e is simply
another liberal Democratic politician who will divide America along
the same lines as it has been divided for decades." (p. xii) That last
line is astonishing because it was Karl Rove, Freddoso's ideological
soul mate, who won the last two presidential elections by pitting rich
against poor, white against black, straight against gay, old against
young, native-born against immigrant, "patriot" against "traitor," and
the religious against the secular. And Fredo is fretting over the
possibility that Obama might "divide" the country?
Freddoso whines about what he sees as Obama's Teflon coating: "Barack
Obama is not to be criticized. He is above that sort of thing. He is
immune to criticism." (p. 71) But he makes no attempt to explain Rev.
Wright, Pfleger, Ayres, Rezko, "bittergate," flag pins, fist bumps,
and most recently tire gauges and Paris Hilton, along with Obama being
called "presumptuous" a "terrorist" a "secret Muslim" and an
"elitist." These media-fueled controversies with Obama at the center
beg the question: If Obama is "immune" to criticism then where did all
this derogatory stuff come from?
"It's not that Barack Obama is a bad person," Freddoso continues.
"It's just that he's like all the rest of them. Not a reformer. Not a
Messiah. Just like all the rest of them in Washington. And just like
all the other liberals, too." (p. 233) That is an interesting
statement given that Freddoso's political party ran "Washington" from
1995 to 2007 in the House of Representatives, and from 2001 to 2009 in
the White House. In fact, the Republicans ran the House, the Senate,
and the Presidency from 2003 to 2007, so any problems Freddoso has
with "Washington" can be placed right on the doorstep of the
Republican National Committee. He should cut out the middleman and
email his complaints directly to the RNC.
Freddoso offers a tiny bit of backhanded praise to Obama for exposing
the Clintons in the Democratic primaries and creating a "new point of
agreement between liberals and conservatives: that the Clintons are a
dangerous and cutthroat pair that will do absolutely anything to win
and cling to power." (p. 69) This passage comes after a gratuitous
paragraph of vitriol aimed at Bill Clinton, apropos to nothing, where
he reminds his conservative readership of Clinton's "hoarding of
political enemies' FBI files," "firing the White House travel office,"
"philandering," "lies under oath," and "last-minute pardons." (p. 68)
But Freddoso goes on to lambaste Obama for distancing himself from the
centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) "as if it were a molten
porcupine." (p. 233) This criticism contradicts Freddoso's earlier
assault on Clinton because Clinton was the personification of the DLC.
Fredo despises Clinton but sticks up for the DLC when Obama turns his
back on it; an organization Clinton was instrumental in forming.
Curious.
One of the funniest parts of the book is when Freddoso gets
melodramatic with some bullet points toward the end summarizing a few
of the nefarious reasons why Obama would be unacceptable as president.
Here are a few of the outrages Obama has committed:
"Obama co-sponsored a bill in 1997 that required certain
municipalities to create affordable housing funds using revenues from
bonds. Among other things, the funds were to be used to preserve
existing buildings and to subsidize construction of new ones."
"In 2001, Obama co-sponsored and passed legislation that increased
such developers' state subsidies by creating an 'affordable housing
tax credit.' In other words, if you donated land or money to a state-
approved affordable housing project, you got half of the value back in
tax credits, which could be carried forward to future tax years."
"In 2003, Obama co-sponsored the Illinois Housing Initiative Act of
2003, which required the governor to develop a plan for more low-
income housing. The bill also would have 'provide[d] for funding for
housing construction and rehabilitation and supportive services." (pp.
217-218)
Although it certainly was not Freddoso's intent, his litany of Obama's
actions in support of low-income housing seems a pragmatic approach to
transforming dilapidated "projects" into mixed-income development
zones. Obama's housing initiatives resemble the public-private
partnership that Robert F. Kennedy dedicated himself to as the junior
Senator from New York: the Bedford-Stuyvesant Renewal and
Rehabilitation Corporation, which was controlled by the local
community, and the Bed-Sty Development and Services Corporation, which
included private investors from outside the community. Freddoso's
venom aimed at Obama's efforts to include the private sector in urban
redevelopment projects is puzzling coming from someone who prides
himself for being a "conservative." I thought they liked the private
sector.
In Freddoso's climactic peroration one can almost hear the Star-
Spangled Banner swelling in the background: "What sort of nominations
does such a man make as president? What kind of diplomacy does he
pursue, given that so much of diplomacy consists in reading,
understanding, and judging others' intentions and character? This is
why these ties deserve scrutiny. If Barack Obama becomes president,
his good judgment, or lack thereof, will affect the entire
country." (p. 234)
I suppose Freddoso's aim was to alert his readers to the danger Obama
poses with a flourish of memorable rhetoric. But his concluding
paragraph falls flat. His journalism profs at Columbia should have
helped him hone his style. Even I wanted a better ending.
And after eight years of George W. Bush -- I think we can risk a
Barack Obama presidency.
---And speaking of judgment, more evidence has surfaced today
regarding Mr. and Mrs. Palin's unethical actions--why would Senator
McCain choose her, knowing of her baggage and her almost pathological
urges towards untruth ("my teleprompter went off during my speech at
the RNC" and her lie du jour regarging Obama--Ayers was a terrorist
during the 1960's + Obama sat on an educational board with Ayers in
Hyde Park Chicago= Obama is a terrorist).
markhw2002
On Oct 7, 10:38 am, Sarin Nou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>
> Washington Insider with Ronald Kessler
>
>
>
>
>
> 100-Plus Former Ambassadors Endorse McCain
>
> Sunday, October 5, 2008 9:38 PM
>
> By: Ronald Kessler
>
> More than 100 former American ambassadors are endorsing John McCain and Sarah
> Palin for president and vice president.
> To be announced by the McCain campaign later this week, the endorsements
> counter Barack Obama’s claims that McCain is inflexible when it comes to
> diplomacy and negotiations with other countries, Newsmax has learned.
> Obama has specifically said that in contrast to McCain, he would sit down
> with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other world dictators to
> negotiate, without preconditions.
> “Senator Obama does not have sufficient leadership experience, nor has he
> been tested in difficult times,” said Mark W. Erwin, a Democrat and former
> Hillary Clinton supporter who is a co-chairman of Former U.S. Ambassadors for
> McCain/Palin. Erwin was ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius.
> Endorsing McCain are Howard Baker, who was ambassador to Japan; former
> President George H.W. Bush, who was ambassador to the United Nations; Frank
> C. Carlucci III, who was ambassador to Portugal; and Jim Nicholson, who was
> ambassador to the Vatican.
> Others endorsing McCain are Bruce Gelb, former ambassador to Belgium;
> Margaret Heckler, who was ambassador to Ireland; John L. Loeb, Denmark; Ed
> Ney, Canada; and Julia Chang Bloch, Nepal.
> Former Ambassador Gilbert A. Robinson spearheaded the formation of the group.
> Besides Erwin, the other co-chairman is former Ambassador to Sweden Gregory
> J. Newell. Robinson was special adviser to Secretary of State George Shultz,
> director of the Office of Public Diplomacy, and deputy director of the U.S.
> Information Agency under President Reagan. Newell was an assistant to
> President Ford and assistant secretary of state under Reagan.
> Such designations carry ambassadorial rank and require Senate confirmation.
> “Nobody could ask for a greater show of confidence,” McCain said in a
> statement to be released to the press. “These former ambassadors are
> outstanding men and women who have served their country in foreign lands with
> great distinction and devotion to the values we hold dear. They have a deep
> knowledge of the challenges facing this country abroad as well as at home. I
> am honored by their endorsement.”
> The former ambassadors endorsing McCain are Weston Adams, Malawi; Thomas H.
> Anderson, Barbados; Leonore Annenberg, chief of protocol; Cresencio Arcos
> Jr., Honduras; George Argyros, Spain; Catherine Todd Bailey, Latvia; Howard
> H. Baker Jr., Japan; Douglas H. Barclay, El Salvador; Stuart A. Bernstein,
> Denmark; Everett E. Bierman, New Guinea; Julia Chang Bloch, Nepal; Stephen F.
> Brauer, Belgium; Keith Lapham Brown, Lesotho and Denmark; Richard R. Burt,
> Germany; George H.W. Bush, United Nations and U.S. Liaison Office (Beijing);
> William J. Cabaniss Jr., Czech Republic; Richard G. Capen Jr., Spain; Richard
> W. Carlson, Seychelles; Frank C. Carlucci III, Portugal; Bruce Chapman,
> International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Sue McCourt Cobb, Jamaica; Charles
> E. Cobb Jr., Iceland.
> Also Walter J.P. Curley, Ireland and France; Peter H. Dailey, Ireland,
> special envoy to NATO countries; Richard J. Egan, Ireland; Mark L. Edelman,
> Cameroon; Donald Burnham Ensenat, Brunei, chief of protocol; Mark Erwin,
> Republic of Mauritius, the Republic of the Seychelles, and the Federal
> Islamic Republic of Comoros; Richard M. Fairbanks III, ambassador-at-large;
> William S. Farish III, United Kingdom, Versailles; Edward R. Finch Jr.,
> Panama; David Funderburk, Romania; John R. Gavin, Mexico; Bruce S. Gelb, U.S.
> Information Agency (USIA), Belgium; Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Switzerland;
> Anthony H. Gioia, Malta; Luis Guinot Jr., Costa Rica.
> Also Margaret M. Heckler, Ireland; Charles A. Heimbold Jr., Sweden; Hans H.
> Hertell, Dominican Republic; Alfred Hoffman Jr., Portugal; Charles W.
> Hostler, Bahrain; Philip Hughes, Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent
> and the Grenadines; Jon M. Huntsman Jr., Singapore; Robert S. Ingersoll,
> Japan; James C. Kenny, Ireland; Alfred H. Kingon, European Union; Lester B.
> Korn, UN Economic and Social Council; Tom C. Korologos, Belgium; Mary E.
> Kramer, Barbados and Eastern Caribbean; Paul C. Lambert, Ecuador; L.W. Lane
> Jr., ambassador-at-large and Australia and Nauru; Mark Langdale, Costa Rica;
> Howard Leach, France; Melvyn Levitsky, Bulgaria and Brazil; John L. Loeb Jr.,
> Denmark; Earle I. Mack, Finland.
> Also Susan Rasinski McCaw, Austria; Thomas Patrick Melady, Burundi, Uganda,
> Holy See; J. William Middendorf II, Netherlands, Organization of American
> States (OAS), European Union; John A. Miller, ambassador-at-large; Steve
> Minikes, Commission on Cooperation and Security in Europe (CSCE); Thomas A.
> Nassif, Morocco; Gregory J. Newell, Sweden; Edward N. Ney, Canada; Jim C.
> Nicholson, Holy See; Herman W. Nickle, South Africa; Julian M. Niemczyk,
> Czechoslovakia; Keith Foote Nyborg, Finland; John D. Ong, Norway; Penne Korth
> Peacock, Mauritius; Joseph Carlton Petrone, UN European Office; Charles J.
> Pilliod, Mexico; John Price, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros.
> Also Charles H. Price II, Belgium, United Kingdom; James W. Rawlings,
> Zimbabwe; Otto J. Reich, Venezuela; Mercer Reynolds, Switzerland and
> Liechtenstein; Gilbert A. Robinson, special adviser to the secretary of
> state; Joe M. Rodgers, France; Sig Rogich, Iceland; John Rood, Bahamas;
> Francis L. Rooney III, Holy See; Bob Royall, Tanzania; Rockwell A. Schnabel,
> Finland, European Union; Peter F. Secchia, Italy; Martin J. Silverstein,
> Uruguay; Marion H.. Smoak, chief of protocol; Ronald J. Sorini, chief textile
> negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; Michael G. Sotirhos,
> Jamaica.
> Also Robert D. Stuart Jr., Norway; Charles J. Swindells, New Zealand and
> Samoa; Peter Terpeluk Jr., Luxembourg; Timothy L. Towell, Paraguay; Rodolphe
> M. Vallee, Slovak Republic; Leon J. Weil, Nepal; John G. Weinmann, Finland,
> chief of protocol; Ronald N. Weiser, Slovak Republic; Pamela P. Willeford,
> Switzerland and Liechtenstein; Richard Williamson, assistant secretary,
> ambassador IAEA; Curtin Winsor Jr., Costa Rica; Dr. Aldona Z. Wos, Estonia;
> and Joseph Zappala, Spain.
>
> Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his
> previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via
> e-mail. Go here now.
>
>
>
> --- On Tue, 10/7/08, Sarin Nou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> From: Sarin Nou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: The real Obama by Prof Thomas Sowell
> To: [email protected]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 1:43 PM
>
> Tuesday, October 07, 2008
>
> The Real Obama
> by Thomas Sowell
>
>
> Critics of Senator Barack Obama make a strategic mistake when they talk about
> his "past associations." That just gives his many defenders in the media an
> opportunity to counter-attack against "guilt by association."
> We all have associations, whether at the office, in our neighborhood or in
> various recreational activities. Most of us neither know nor care what our
> associates believe or say about politics.
> Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people
> who happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you
> do. You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you
> choose says something about you.
> Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko are
> not just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as
> Barack Obama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years,
> and with some of whom some serious money changed hands.
> Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama's
> election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the
> taxpayers' money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance-- but
> an alliance is not just an "association" from being at the same place at the
> same time.
> Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and
> again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of
> America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can
> change that.
> Unfortunately, all that most people know about Barack Obama is his own
> rhetoric and that of his critics. Moreover, some of his more irresponsible
> critics have made wild accusations-- that he is not an American citizen or
> that he is a Muslim, for example.
> All that such false charges do is discredit Obama's critics in general.
> Fortunately, there is a documented, factual account of what Barack Obama has
> actually been doing over the years, as distinguished from what he has been
> saying during this election campaign, in a new best-selling book.
> That book is titled "The Case Against Barack Obama" by David Freddoso. He
> starts off in the introduction by repudiating those critics of Obama who
> "have been content merely to slander him-- to claim falsely that he refuses
> to salute the U.S. flag or was sworn into office on a Koran, or that he was
> born in a foreign country."
> This is a serious book with 35 pages of documentation in the back to support
> the things said in the main text. In other words, if you don't believe what
> the author says, he lets you know where you can go check it out.
> Barack Obama's being the first serious black candidate for President of the
> United States is what most people consider remarkable but how he got there is
> at least equally surprising.
> The story of Obama's political career is not a pretty story. He won his first
> political victory by being the only candidate on the ballot-- after hiring
> someone skilled at disqualifying the signers of opposing candidates'
> petitions, on whatever technicality he could come up with.
> Despite his words today about "change" and "cleaning up the mess in
> Washington," Obama was not on the side of reformers who were trying to change
> the status quo of corrupt, machine politics in Chicago and clean up the mess
> there. Obama came out in favor of the Daley machine and against reform
> candidates.
> Senator Obama is running on an image that is directly the opposite of what he
> has been doing for two decades. His escapes from his past have been as
> remarkable as the great escapes of Houdini.
> Why much of the public and the media have been so mesmerized by the words and
> the image of Obama, and so little interested in learning about the factual
> reality, was perhaps best explained by an official of the Democratic Party:
> "People don't come to Obama for what he's done, they come because of what
> they hope he can be."
> David Freddoso's book should be read by those people who want to know what
> the facts are. But neither this book nor anything else is likely to change
> the minds of Obama's true believers, who have made up their minds and don't
> want to be confused by the facts.
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